Running
by iciclegirl235
Summary: Rose Weasley is running. Strong, brave, Rose Weasley is running. Heart-broken, lost, Rose Weasley is running.


I ran down the streets. Nothing could stop me. _No one_ could stop me.

Because no one knew I was running.

I hadn't announced that I was going to run away- and even if I had just told Albus or Alice, it would have eventually spread throughout the family. And if I told them _why_ I was running away- well, let's not go there.

I don't usually give into things that easily. I don't usually run away. But this wasn't usual. I am a lion, bold and brave. I am an eagle, strong and free. I am a shark, quick and fierce.

I was never a cheetah, running away from anything and everything.

I could run like a cheetah- years of chasing after my brothers, trying to get back what they had stolen, had proven that.

I never worried or wondered about things; nothing was enigmatic to me. Albus would ponder on and on about things. "What do you think, Rose? What's your opinion?" he'd ask. Alice was more straight-forward. "Everything is as it seems," she'd say. Me, I never even cared. "I'm not thinking, Albus," I'd say. "I don't have an opinion." Thinking about Albus and Alice made me already miss them. But now I wish I'd listen to Albus ponder, or hear Alice's straight-forward answers. Because I _did_ find an enigma. I didn't know the answer, whether it was obvious or mysterious. I couldn't tell anyone about it. But it was all I thought about. It's all I _think_ about.

I spent a whole year trying to figure it out, then a summer. A new year began. Things started to clear up. The fog hiding the ship moved away. But what was behind the fog wasn't _just a ship_, unless a normal ship takes your breath away; stops you in your tracks; makes you put down your shield.

That was the biggest mistake I made. None of this would've happened. I wouldn't be more scared than ever, more protective of myself. I wouldn't turn my back on the world, drown myself in my tears and sad, angry songs. I wouldn't be running away.

The street lights grew brighter in the dark black sky. I ran past houses with lights on, the warmth and happiness of the people inside spilling outside and onto the road where I was.

I ran faster.

Suddenly, I felt like I could breathe. I could feel the cool air washing me thoroughly like my mum did when I was a baby, till I was soft and clean. The streetlights were gone and instead, I was staring at a starry blanket of indigo. The trees were swaying gently, and the grass was dancing against my bare ankles. I looked down. No shoes. I would have been all sarcastic and scold myself about that, but I was too busy enjoying the freedom. I wandered with my eyes closed along the grassy field, till suddenly everything felt darker.

I opened my eyes, and internally suffocated.

The trees surrounding me were not "swaying gently." They were hard, cold, and still. They reminded me of some- never mind. The bushes that made me struggle through the forest were constantly moving and scratchy. I wandered deeper and deeper. Till I was lost in my miseries. My mistakes. My memories.

I felt something slide down my cheek and roll onto my collar bone. Sweat? No. Tears.

I hadn't cried like this since I was a small child and I watched my mother throw away my favorite blanket. It was stained with grass, dirt, and love. It was soft and blue, and comforted me whenever my father took too long on Auror duty.

Yes, I have cried…recently. But, like I said, not like this. Not gentle, sad tears that hurt a million times more than the heaving sobs you cry when you lose a loved one.

Trust me, crying is something I know a lot about.

I was so busy concentrating on the foreign wetness on my cheeks that I wasn't paying attention to all those pokey bushes around me. I tripped, fell, and cussed A wave of sadness suddenly washed over me. Now that I sat down I just didn't want to get up. Ever. I would sit there, and rot, and wait for somebody to find my dead body, then Albus and Alice would realize, and he would know…

_Crrrck._

I froze like a marble statue. What was that noise?

_Crrrck_.

There it was again. It sounded like something was walking on the leaves.

And that something was right behind me.

Suddenly, my breathe caught. I smelled something…like mint and clove and trees in the autumn and some men's fragrance whose name I couldn't remember. Something sweet holding something poisonous. It was a smell I was very…_familiar_ with. And when a cool, silver voice with minty breathe spoke, I knew exactly who it was.

"Hey, Red- Rose."

Scorpius Malfoy.

**Hey! This is just a Rose/ Scorpius one-shot, though I'm thinking about building the before and afters of this, like what happened to Rose and Scorpius before, and what happens after they meet in the woods. This is basically a fill-in between those two stories...that i haven't written yet. ;P Please, please review!**

-Ali 


End file.
